Tim and I got engaged!
We spent the weekend with my family at Lake Hope, our traditional fall vacation spot. Sunday morning, Tim took me for a walk to a picturesque spot overlooking the lake, and asked me to marry him. Of course, I said yes!
There’s not a specific date yet but we are planning to marry in spring or summer 2009, in either Cleveland or the Twin Cities. Suggestions for attractive and reasonably-priced venues will be taken.
Since the proposal location was so pretty, we did a re-enactment photo shoot later in the day (thanks for photographing, Ellen!). You can see those pictures, as well as a few shots of the gorgeous ruby ring, in the gallery here.
I’m spending a lot of time in the hospital now that my clinical rotations have started, which is leaving less time and energy for other things like blogging, and I decided to simplify my life by just not doing anything that I’m not finding necessary or fun, hence the paucity of posts. I am very much liking the rotations though. The first month I was on outpatient medicine, which is supposed to be kind of a vacation but actually turned out to be half inpatient medicine and quite the challenge, but I loved the work. For the past five weeks I’ve been on inpatient medicine, first general internal medicine and now cardiology. I really like this too; taking care of patients is interesting and fulfilling. So that’s good.
Other good stuff (some a bit belated since my internet surfing has been curtailed):
Why blogs should provide full-text RSS feeds: it’s good for business. You’re not going to keep people from using RSS readers (especially the high-volume readers who, really, are who you most want reading your blog), and providing partial text is more likely to just make them stop reading than click over every day. There are some great blogs that I used to read before I made the RSS switch, but their crappy feed quality means I haven’t really kept up - there is so much else out there. And there’s more than one blog where I’m not interested in all the posts, but I am interested in many of discussions in the comments, so I usually do click over if there are interesting posts, even once I’ve already read the whole text.
The Pantsuit Paradox: “How do women signal power at the boys’ club?” It’s an excellent article about a real dilemma: women have no equivalent of the suit and tie, an outfit that projects professionalism and authority and nothing else. We have to worry about whether we look too girly or not feminine enough, too sexy or too matronly, too trendy or too stodgy-librarian. (I do think there’s an excellent role for the businesslike pantsuit well-cut for the female shape; I am not sure why female politicians don’t seem to use them more, but then the viewpoint that for women, dressing up = skirt is still definitely out there.) Luckily a white coat and stethoscope go a long way toward projecting professionalism and authority, so I don’t have to worry too much about this anymore. Although I did see in one of the dress codes that women are supposed to wear T-shirts under scrubs; no word about men. I guess risking a hint of cleavage is much more unprofessional than letting all your chest hair hang out.
[passing the cafeteria] Something smells tasty. I think it smells like Frank’s Red Hot.
Ooh, Mom’s recipe for chicken wings features a bottle of Frank’s Red Hot and is super yummy.
I should make chicken wings.
Tim and I probably can’t eat a whole batch. Maybe there’s an occasion for which I could make them.
I think the Superbowl must be coming up soon; I remember seeing that the first-year auditorium was reserved for that purpose while I was scheduling CPR training. Wings are a good Superbowl food.
But if I went to a Superbowl party, then I would have to watch the Superbowl. It’s not worth it.
Maybe I could throw a non-Superbowl party, in which we eat chicken wings and other messy and unhealthy foods but do NOT watch the Superbowl or think about football at all! This sounds awesome.
The set of my friends who like messy and unhealthy foods, and the set of my friends who would want to skip watching the Superbowl, may have an extremely small intersection. Tim and I may be back to eating chicken wings on our own.
Tim and I joined an indoor rock gym a few months ago and I love it. We had an excellent climb last night, during which I realized that I’ve gotten a lot better since we started. Routes are graded on a scale that I don’t quite understand (I think it’s this but I’m not sure). Anyway, at the gym they range from 5.6 to 5.12 I think. When I started there were only two marked routes I could do at the gym; mostly I just climbed up using whatever holds were convenient, and I couldn’t make it up over back-sloping walls at all. Then I could do all the 5.6 routes and started tackling 5.7s. Last night it occurred to me that all the ones I regularly climb are 5.7s because 5.6s are not very challenging anymore. Most of the time I can do them without too much trouble. I’ve been working on one 5.8 for a few weeks - I usually fall in the middle but I can do it with a few tries. And last night I decided to try another 5.8 that looked like fun and I was quite successful - it’s going to be my new favorite climb.
I’m at a point where I’m not totally sure what I can do - often I’ll be halfway up a wall looking for my next move, and think that I can’t reach the next hold or can’t pull myself up. Then I try it anyway, and most of the time I can. I’m always surprised when I swing over sideways to a hold, or hoist myself up with my arms. It feels good! My favorite routes have a lot of side-to-side motion; I think it requires more thought than brute force but it’s also a challenge to move side-to-side when there may not be very much to stand on. And I like climbs that require me to place myself in unusual positions; it’s fun to see what my body can do.
The other neat thing about climbing is that it’s a social activity. Encouraging your partner on a climb is an art, and it really makes a difference when you’re the one trying to make it up the wall. I go mostly with Tim, but occasionally with my best friend from my class, who’s been climbing for much longer, and she is so encouraging that she ends up pushing me way past what I thought I could do.
My tests are over! I’m pretty sure I passed them all. I have only gotten one back so far and I did a bit better than I expected, so I feel fairly hopeful.
I had an excellent and relaxing weekend. Tim and I went to a state park south of here for hiking and smores-making and that sort of thing; it was very pleasant.
Sadly, all the leaves were gone from the trees. I was expecting that to be the case in November, but then I got my hopes up when the St. Louis leaves were still around. I guess that’s the result of the urban heat island.
We also visited a winery and went to the zoo. The baby elephant wasn’t on display but the other animals were exceptionally cute. The bear was making himself a bed with some straw.
The big cats were all out and moving around; I guess when it isn’t hot outside they aren’t so lazy. The jaguar looked just like Ellen’s cat:
The new course block is going fine so far. We’re learning GI (digestive system), endocrinology (hormones), and dermatology (skin), as well as pathology (looking at specimens) for all of those. It’s very lecture-heavy, which is not particularly pleasant, but it may end up being fine. I decided that taking my computer to class doesn’t work very well, because listening to lecture is not something you can really Alt-Tab back and forth with. However, taking notes doesn’t work that well for me either - partially because all the slides are available, as are transcripts and lecture recordings, so I’m not motivated to take excellent notes. Also if there’s enough going on that I’m constantly writing, I’m not really understanding; while if I’m not constantly writing I tend to drift off. I need something I can do constantly that doesn’t take much attention. So, my new plan is to knit during class. Judging from my excellent performance in small group yesterday, it seems to work very well.
I’ve also got some projects going on at home. I’m entering the home stretch with the cabinet I’m refinishing. Now that it’s cold I can’t work outdoors anymore, but luckily the polyurethane doesn’t stink too badly, so I’ll put a dropcloth down in the living room, open the window, and crank the heat. I should be done with a week or two of occasional evening work.
And I ordered a new headboard and footboard for my bed. They arrived yesterday. I had to clean my room before I could put it together, so I didn’t get to that point last night. I am hoping to succeed tonight. Now I’m thinking that I should do something about my desk - I don’t like it very much and could use one with drawers and possibly shelves. So I’ll be watching Craigslist for a new one.
Next weekend I will be in Cleveland for Thanksgiving and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone!
Recently I’ve been busy: going to Cleveland for my sister’s wedding, getting sick, studying, going to DC for Halloween, getting sick (again, and worse), and studying hard-core for tests next week. I’ll be going out of town again to relax next weekend; blogging should resume after that.
And there will be pictures from Cleveland and DC once Tim gets around to uploading them. (ha!)
I just got my computer back after almost two weeks without it. The ethernet port has been broken for months and I finally decided to try getting it fixed before the warranty expired. Unfortunately, IBM claimed that the problem is due to a liquid spill (which I don’t believe - I would think that if I’d spilled something on the computer and then stuff broke I would remember) so they wouldn’t fix it, and they sent it back just a bit too late for me to get it before leaving for Cleveland for Audra’s wedding. But the upshot is, now I finally have my computer back, ethernet port or not. (I don’t really need it anyway.) It’s so nice to have all my settings and documents and navigation keys and screen real estate. And be able to compute during class.
The second year of med school started yesterday. So far, so good. The second-year lecture hall is much nicer than the first-year one; there are more aisles so people actually fill in the middle, and the HVAC system works better so I’m wearing short sleeves and not freezing. (I was a bit chilly yesterday in a tank top, but not so much that I had to leave, unlike certain times last year.)
Grades are back - while last year was pass/fail, this year we have honors/high pass/pass/fail. Scheduling is by various-length blocks: first we have pharmacology, pathology, and ENT for three weeks, then a week of tests, then the next block is something like two months long. Most of the time we get the Friday of exam week off so there are long weekends to recuperate, which will be nice.
This year is supposed to have a much heavier workload than first year (we don’t usually have afternoons off, for one thing, and we have to learn a lot more data) but it should be a little more interesting because the information is more directly relevant.
Somehow I’ve ended up helping to run several student groups. I’m semi-officially one of the people in charge of the CPR teaching team and the Gay-Straight Alliance. And I’ll continue to be involved with the Perinatal Project (which provides prenatal information to at-risk pregnant women), the Young Scientist Program (which teaches science to school kids), and probably the Reproductive Health program (aimed at middle schoolers). Although that sounds like a ridiculous number of teaching volunteer programs, it’s actually only half or less of the teaching teams that are available here, so I’m restraining myself if you think about it. I do plan to keep teaching test prep as well, but probably only on a substitute basis in the interests of keeping my schedule reasonable.
I might post more if I continue bringing my computer to class. I’ve been wanting to do several posts wrapping up the first-year experience; we’ll see how that goes.
My summer is turning out to actually be busier than the school year was, surprisingly enough. I was accepted into a summer research program, which I’m enjoying very much. My project is in occupational medicine; I’m studying the vibration and force manufacturing workers experience as a result of using power tools. It’s pretty interesting, and much more up my alley than a more typical project involving mice or cell cultures would be. (I’m really glad I don’t have to do anything mean to mice.)
The program I’m in comes with a bunch of other requirements; I’m taking two classes which have a fair bit of homework, and I have to attend various lunch talks and things like that. So it’s more of a time commitment than I expected.
I signed up to teach quite a bit as well; I’m doing mostly physics and chemistry and teaching once or twice a week. Except some weeks it’s more like 3 or 4 times a week, and that gets very tiring. But it’s still fun.
This past weekend was the first one I’ve spent in St. Louis with no visitors to entertain since mid-May. Visitors have included a friend of mine from college, friends of Tim’s from high school, my mom, and Tim’s parents. We went to southwest MO for boating and waterskiing one weekend, and the last week in June was spent in Providenciales (British West Indies, Bahamas) scuba diving, lounging on the beach, and attending the wedding of two close friends. I have to figure out where the camera is, and hopefully then I’ll post pictures of that.
The rest of the summer features work and class prominently. I’m also working on a project to refinish a display cabinet that’s been sitting in my closet all year; it turns out that sanding is very tiring, even with the help of a power sander. I’ll be really disappointed if this doesn’t turn out well.
I also have a trip to Cleveland and one or two trips to Minnesota planned for the end of summer. Then it will be back to school, and second year is supposed to be significantly more time-consuming than first year was. But the content should be more interesting, so I’m looking forward to it.
I ran a funny sequence of errands yesterday.
My car’s left headlight has been out for a week or so, and I finally got around to picking up a replacement bulb. So I spent half an hour or so rooting around under the hood to change the bulb. It wouldn’t have taken so long, except that I couldn’t see what I was doing (very small space - how do men fit their hands in there?) and the spring that holds the bulb in place was so stiff I couldn’t figure out how to unlatch it because it didn’t give in any direction, and I didn’t want to break it. Once I got the old one out, I was more successful putting the new one in, though it still took quite awhile to force the spring into place. I must have looked frustrated, because a very nice gentleman with very few teeth stopped by to ask if I needed any help. It turned out that I didn’t, because just as I was explaining what I was trying to do, I got it into place, but I appreciated the offer.
Then I washed my hands with the napkins and water bottle I had in the car, and went to the fabric store to buy supplies to make curtains for my apartment. (The fabric I got is gorgeous, by the way. I’ll have to post pictures once the curtains are up.)
It probably says something about me that I was so tickled about doing these particular errands back-to-back.
Actually, the rest of the day’s errands involved getting keys copied at Home Depot and buying bread, milk, and vegetables at the grocery store, so maybe it was just Grownup Errands Day.